The Trudo Vertical Forest skyscraper is a new social housing project covered in 5200 shrubs and 125 trees that aims to improve living conditions for disadvantaged residents.

The project by Stefano Boeri Architetti is the first to integrate a vertical forest into an affordable residential skyscraper. Trudo Vertical Forest in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, is a 75m tall residential skyscraper and will contain 125 social housing units over 19 floors to house lower income social groups, particularly young people. Each apartment will include a balcony filled with an array of trees, plants and shrubs to create the illusion of a forest soaring into the city's sky.

Integrating trees into the facade of the high-rise will help to counteract the atmospheric pollution by absorbing carbon dioxide. Trudo Vertical Forest will also create an authentic eco-system with over 70 different species for plants and animals to thrive, facilitating the development of biodiversity within Eindhoven.

“The high-rise building of Eindhoven confirms that it is possible to combine the great challenges of climate change with those of housing shortages,” said Stefano Boeri. “Urban forestry is not only necessary to improve the environment of the world's cities but also an opportunity to improve the living conditions of less fortunate city dwellers.”

Boeri’s project will use prefabrication with a rationalisation of technical solutions for the facade to optimise the resources and enable the possibility of a vertical forest as social housing.

Vertical forests have risen in popularity after Stefano Boeri Architetti's call for urban forestry in a global publication last month, encouraging new parks and gardens, vertical forests and green facades. The video claimed that, “Increasing and moving trees into the world's cities can help clean the polluted air, drastically reduce CO2, reduce energy consumption and urban heat island effect, increase biodiversity of living species, and make cities more pleasant, healthier and attractive.”